


If Wishes Were Fishes

by Barcelona_Avenue



Category: Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle
Genre: Fluff and Angst, Gen, Light Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-06
Updated: 2017-03-06
Packaged: 2018-09-28 17:41:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,678
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10142117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Barcelona_Avenue/pseuds/Barcelona_Avenue
Summary: In which Kurogane is subjected to a day of contemporary art viewing, and Fai ponders the implications of self-aware fish. There's some Mokona madness and silent seething, and Sakura is downright adorable. Just your average day out looking for a magical memory feather, really.





	

Bronze, bulbous and monolithic, the abstract sculpture towered in arrogant defiance above the many bustling enthusiasts at its feet. Kurogane stared at the obscure structure with a mixture of confusion, boredom and disgust. He reached forward to stroke its speckled surface in hope of gauging some understanding of its purpose, but was immediately apprehended by a nearby guard, who proceeded to warn him once again of the prohibition against touching the exhibits. The ninja grumbled an incoherent retort as a shock of blonde hair appeared by his side, the grinning face of the effervescent mage, Fai, blocking his view of the bronze statue.

“What the hell is this anyway?” Kurogane exclaimed, gesturing at the structure behind Fai.

“It’s _art_ Kuro-pon!” the wizard replied gleefully, grabbing Kurogane’s hand in order to pull him into the next room.

Kurogane detached Fai’s hand from his and pinned him with a menacing glare, which unfortunately went unnoticed. “Its meaningless rubbish is what it is,” he mumbled unhappily. “Why do we have to waste our time in this godforsaken place?”

Fai sighed dramatically at the ninja and made another grab for his hand as he said, “Because Mokona thinks the feather might be in here, in one of the exhibits somewhere.” Kurogane snatched his arm away in enough time and smirked as Fai stumbled forward due to overbalancing.

“So?”

“ _So_ ,” the blonde replied with a huff, “we have to look in every room so we don’t miss it. You promised you’d help Syaoran, Kuro-nin, that’s what you’re doing.”

“No,” Kurogane said pointedly, “I’m being forced to torture my eyes by looking at _things,_ ” he grimaced at a particularly offensive canvas depicting red and yellow squares overlapping, “that belong in the dump. I said I’d help find a feather – not tour a bloody mausoleum!”

“Museum!” Fai giggled in response, earning himself another glare.

“Whatever, same thing,” Kurogane huffed.

Having spied the children up ahead, Fai grabbed Kurogane by the forearm before he had a chance to object and jogged with the ninja to meet them.

The friends walked together into the next gallery space, and were greeted with a magnificent sight. Along the length of an entire wall were thousands of little holes holding thousands of little ribbons, all in a multitude of colours. It was like a satiny rainbow sea, suspended in motion. Sakura rushed forwards to inspect the piece, relating the information she had learned back to Syaoran, Mokona, Fai, and Kurogane as they joined her.

“Isn’t it pretty? I asked somebody and they said it’s all about wishes!” she proclaimed excitedly, “It’s an artwork too.”

“Hardly,” Kurogane said. Fai elbowed him in the ribs.

Sakura continued, oblivious to the exchange, “There are wishes written on all the ribbons, other people’s wishes. You take one you like, then write a wish of your own on paper and put it back in its place.” A sudden wave of disappointment crossed her face when she remembered the ribbons would be in an unfamiliar text, as was everything in the worlds they visited. “Oh, but I can’t understand any of them, so we can’t really join in, can we?”

Syaoran raised a hand to comfort his princess, but was interrupted by Mokona’s sudden squeals of delights

“Look, look!” cried Mokona, “Here’s one that says ‘I wish I could travel in time and space’, if only we could tell them we can!”

“Can you read this language Mokona?” Syaoran asked in surprise, inspecting the ribbons closer. It certainly looked foreign to him.

“Yep, yep, yep, Mokona can! It’s almost just like Japanese,” Mokona chirped happily.

“Oh,” said Fai, peering at the text closer, “Kuro-pon taught me some in Yama, I think I can read it a little too. What about you Kuro-doggy?”

Kurogane huffed impatiently, “Probably, but who cares? There’s no feather here, keep moving.”

All four faces of his companions turned on him in sorrow, their very eyes pleading.

“Oh come on Kuro-daddy!” Fai whined in mock despair, “We have such little fun during all our travels; if you can read it help us choose a wish!”

The ninja growled, “All you do is have fun you stupid mage! You don’t take anything seriously.”

Fai pouted, his lip curled in childish defiance, his eyes glimmered with fake tears – and Kurogane folded like some kind of stupid origami. “Fine! Do what you want idiot.”

With simultaneous cries of exultation, the friends dispersed and began scanning the wall for their favourite wish, Mokona and Fai doing their best to help Syaoran and Sakura with translations. Kurogane merely glanced at the ribbons with an air of boredom – an effort to appear detached and uninterested. 

“Sakura-chan, Sakura-chan! Which one will you take?” Mokona cried happily as it bounced up and down on Syaoran’s head. Sakura glanced sheepishly down at the little yellow ribbon in her hands and blushed.

“E-eh…I chose ‘I wish I could remember my dreams’,” she replied timidly, avoiding eye contact with anyone.

Syaoran’s face fell for a second, but he brightened up immediately and gave her a reassuring smile, “That’s a good wish Sakura-hime,” he said, attempting to sound genuine.

Sakura beamed in response and nodded her head furiously, as if she had agreed with him all along. “What about you Syaoran-kun?”

“I’ve got one that I think says ‘I wish I could change the past’,” he replied sombrely. Sakura didn’t seem to notice however, as Mokona chose that moment to jump from the boy’s head to hers.

“Well, Mokona can’t decide!” the white dumpling exclaimed, causing Sakura to laugh. “Mokona likes both ‘I wish the world was made of ice cream’ and ‘I wish hugs smelled like strawberries’.”

“Both of those sound yummy,” Sakura giggled, “Why don’t I help you choose?”

From a distance, Fai watched the exchange between the three with fondness, a light smile playing on his lips, but never truly emerging. He sighed as he turned back to wall, perusing the little satin strips of texts. Some were hard to make out, but he stilled when his eyes fell upon one he definitely could read and felt far too connected with. His smile vanished for a moment. He reached for the ribbon without really knowing he was doing it, tracing the text lightly.

_I wish I could disappear._

Unbeknownst to the mage, Kurogane was studying him. He always noticed things the wizard assumed he’d concealed expertly. The stupid idiot was so obvious sometimes it was painful. Kurogane saw now the way Fai stilled, his shoulders squaring, and his face hardening. It was always like this, his entire body language changed when he dropped his ridiculous ‘I’m-so-happy-and-free’ charade. Nevertheless, this was hardly the time or place for an existential crisis – the kids were nearby. Kurogane stalked over to the mage and was about to grumble something about moving on, when he caught sight of the text on the ribbon the idiot was touching. Fai’s hand had dropped immediately to his side, but it was too late; Kurogane had eagle eyesight.

He was suddenly and irrationally furious.

_I wish I could disappear._

There was nothing that pissed him off more than when people stopped valuing their own damn lives. Especially when that someone was a blonde-haired, blue-eyed, moronic wizard who claimed he didn’t _want_ to die but constantly wound up on a suicide mission every world they visited because ‘he had to help the children’.

In a moment of brash anger, Kurogane pointedly grabbed the ribbon off the wall and fixed Fai with a challenging glare.

Fai had frozen, his body betraying him with its battle-defensive instincts. Kurogane was standing so close he could feel his hot breath upon his neck, the warmth that radiated from his cloaked body suffocating Fai’s senses. Kurogane had seen everything and was daring Fai to admit to it. The ribbon dangled between them, urging Fai to make a move, much like the red cloth in one of those strange bull fights they’d seen in one particular world.

Seconds dragged into minutes, and Fai calculated all his options. He was tense, but allowed his eyes to scan the wall as if he were simply admiring the artwork. When it seemed like Kurogane was about to stand down, Fai calmly reached forward and chose a ribbon which had been directly below the one now in Kurogane’s clenched fist. He levelled the ninja with a cold, dead smile.

“See Kuro-bono”, Fai chirped humourlessly, “‘I wish fish had wings’. Isn’t that nice?” And with that Fai trotted away to join Sakura in her attempts to help Mokona decide on a wish. He smiled and laughed, but there was an emptiness there that hadn’t been present before.

“Did you take a ribbon too, Kuro-daddy?” Mokona squealed as the ninja approached them. He was still clenching the stupid bit of fabric and looked down at it darkly. He considered the ribbon, and then putting it in his pocket he looked pointedly at Fai.

“No. The one I would have taken wasn’t there,” he huffed.

“Oh? What does Kuro-rin wish, then?” Mokona asked cheerily.

“I wish morons wouldn’t lie,” Kurogane said with conviction. He revelled in the hint of fury that flashed through Fai’s eyes. He was over it, after Yama, after everything – he was over watching the wizard play the fool and was damn sure going to let him know it. Fai did his best to laugh it off, calling Kurogane a ‘grumpy doggy’ and accusing him of ruining their fun, until Syaoran made a gesture from across the room, indicating that they ought to move on.

Assuming a happy countenance and throwing a skip into his step, Fai followed behind the group, wondering if fish ever really wished they had wings. If they did, they could escape capture and fly away from the perils of the ocean. But in the air they would surely suffocate and die. Perhaps the adventure of it all, however short-lived, might be worth the outcome. Then again, fish weren’t smart enough to have such creative or self-aware thoughts. So it was all rather pointless in the end.

**Author's Note:**

> Much like Tsubasa, this started so damn fluffy and adorable but ended up in a place I wasn’t expecting. Bit of light existential angst.
> 
> I was inspired to write this story after seeing the artwork described and picking up a ribbon which read 'I wish fish had wings'. It struck me instantly as being very Fai-like, so I wrote it into this mental story. I took home the one that said 'I wish I could travel in time and space'.
> 
> If you're interested, the artwork is titled "I Wish your Wish" by Rivane Neuenschwander. There's more info and photos here: http://21cblog?s=wishes&x=0&y=0


End file.
